To complement the exhibition, PLASA has lined up a range of seminars, workshops and clinics that will give an insight into how new technology is creating new opportunities, how individuals have pulled together highly complex projects, why integration is so important and how you can achieve more by picking up tips and techniques from others.

DJs can learn more about MP3 digitally-compressed music files and how this new technology is already creating a platform for a more creative approach. In a programme of seminars sponsored by Installation Europe, audio installation and integration is the theme under which issues of networking, control and the benefits of converging technologies are explored. Tuesday sees a Theme and Leisure Masterclass, presented by Leisure Management, in association with the TEA and TiLE, which focuses on how the leisure industry exploits special effects, lighting a

Fisher Productions has completed its move to new offices. "The new building is far more spacious than our previous office - as our staff numbers continue to grow, we really needed a place with room for expansion," says Fisher marketer Gemma Courtenay. More staff, bigger projects, a developing in-house lighting and staging department and storage of a variety of props had resulted in Fisher outgrowing its last premises. The 40,000sq.ft area, with warehouse and offices above, presented the company with the ideal solution. With a location that is convenient for both central London and international travel, all that was needed to complete the package was an internal refurbishment to include bright, modern office space with multiple meeting areas and state-of-the-art features.

Projects coordinated from the new premises have ranged from South African Airways Product Launch, the Rel

On Tuesday 17 July, the world famous Ministry of Sound played host to the Final of the DI UK Light Jockey Contest, sponsored by Clay Paky and Pulsar. Battling it out in front of the judges were Simon Elliott, Chris Penney, Richard Whiteley and Rob Calvert. Simon Elliott emerged as the new UK Light Jockey Champion, with Chris Penney and Richard Whiteley being awarded a silver and bronze medal respectively.

The difficult task of judging the final was given to DI’s Paul Fowler, Ministry of Sound’s Lorenzo Meddi, lighting designer Carl Dodds and current World Light Jockey Champion Chris Shead. Each contestant had to program a five minute lightshow to a piece of music of their choice. The standards were very high throughout, with originality and creativity making each lightshow unique in its own right. As part of his prize package Elliott also won a customised gold plated Master

The organisers of Entech 2002 have released preliminary details relating to next year’s event, which takes place from February 4-6 at Darling Harbour in Sydney. The visitor programme includes keynote summits for audio, vision and lighting practitioners on 4 February. The summits will cap the opening day’s educational programme set to feature new format seminars held in the lecture facilities within the Sydney Exhibition and Convention Center. Day One features a Venue Design Forum, an afternoon session with leading lighting designers, two pro audio seminars and a vision/video seminar.

Additional events on Day One include a rigging workshop, an opening day reception on the rooftop at closing time and Mark Cunningham’s famous pop quiz at sundown. A complete programme of events, including the sixth and largest Entech Awards Dinner, will be released ahead of an extensive

The PLASA Show, London’s leading entertainment technology event, represents far more than just an arena from which to see the latest developments and innovations within the entertainment technology industry. It also offers visitors the opportunity to learn more about how to use this technology to best effect through its Masterclass Programme. This year, the Masterclass Programme, which runs from the Monday to the Wednesday, will focus on the fields of special effects, architectural installations and audio and corporate presentations and will include an impressive line-up of speakers, all of whom are experts in their specific fields.

Tuesday 11th September 2001, Theme and Leisure Day of the Masterclass Programme is a ‘must’ for visitors interested in learning how, through imaginative design and intelligent production techniques, special effects can be utilised in live

On the day I visited the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, the sun came out. It blazed all day, the perfect start for a night of hot Brazilian jazz.

Funny thing was, I was there to hear one of the classic voices of British r&b: from the early sixties with the Spencer Davis group, through Traffic and Blind Faith to a lengthy solo career, Stevie Winwood has never been less than a national treasure.

He’s not toured since the mid-90s, so this appearance was all the more welcome. How he came to be performing on stage with Brazilian guitar genius Jose Neto is a lengthy story, suffice to say good musicians attract one another like magnets, and I know from speaking to Jose (a friend, as well as a star) that he’d always wanted to re-arrange some of the Winwood canon, so this was to be a special evening in every sense.

For supporting this fledgling festival, mention must be made of Richa

PLASA’s Standards Office is appealing for help from the industry. The office is currently reviewing a number of standards-related issues and would value feedback and input from the industry in general, but PLASA Members in particular. Current topics under review include the Event Stewarding Standard - a new British Standard is to be written; EN 55103 - the EMC standard for audio, video and lighting control systems is under revision; EN 60598-2-17 - the electrical safety standard for stage and studio luminaries is to be revised. Also being reviewed at the moment is the Draft Revised EMC Directive - the European Commission's proposed revision and the ESTA Power Cabling Survey - which examines the usage of single conductor feeder cables. If you have an interest in any of these issues, please e-mail Tim Cox at the PLASA Standards Office on tim@p

With the closing deadline set at 10 August, there’s just one week to go for companies exhibiting at the PLASA Show 2001 to enter their new products for the prestigious PLASA Awards for Product Excellence. Two awards - one for Design Excellence and one for Technical Innovation - are given in each of the four categories of Lighting, Sound, AV and Stage Engineering. Winners are presented with a trophy (specially-designed by DHA Lighting) at a ceremony on the final morning of the show. All the winners will be featured in a special post-show Awards supplement published with the October edition of Lighting&Sound International magazine, but win or lose, all nominees will benefit from full pre-show publicity for their latest products.

If you want to enter your products for a PLASA Award, full details of the nomination process can be found on the PLASA Show website or call us now on +44 (

Lighting design and events specialists Rainmaker recently lit an open air stage on Brighton Beach for a Channel Four party event starring dance impresarios Norman Cook AKA Fatboy Slim and Groove Armada, and enjoyed free by approximately 35,000 excited revellers.

The main focus of the stage was a giant Screenco LED screen. This had been rigged to facilitate a C4 broadcast of the Ashes cricket from Edgebaston on the Thursday through Sunday. However, Channel Four then decided it would create a great local buzz of they threw a party on the Friday night, offering an opportunity to groove the summer evening away with the best in contemporary club vibes with local hero - the Fatboy himself! They then decided to broadcast parts of the party a week later on C4’s ‘Fatboy Slim Night’.

The Fatboy Slim event originally started out just as a just live show, with Rainmaker initial

For those visitors new to PLASA or simply keen to remind themselves how impressive last year’s event was, the Show website now features a virtual tour of last year’s PLASA Show. The tour takes in various elements of the exhibition with views from both the lower and top decks. By clicking on any of the green circles featured, visitors can look at the show floor in 3D and also explore other facilities at Earls Court 1.

A huge 17m x 10.5m Harkness Hall Airscreen took centre stage at two open air screenings during the revived Cambridge Film Festival. Shown as part of the Festival’s first run Children’s Film Festival, the highlight of the week long programme of events took place on two consecutive evenings with free screenings of Disney’s immensely popular ‘Toy Story 2’ and Aardman Animation’s smash hit ‘Chicken Run’, which entertained audiences of some 5,000 late into the night. Registering another first for the Festival, ‘Chicken Run’ was shown in a special subtitled version, making it the biggest screening ever to take place for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences.

The Airscreen, a giant inflatable frame incorporating a projection surface from Harkness Hall, was rigged and de-rigged for each show in a little over 25 minutes. A powered air pum

Lighthouse Visual Communications were responsible for staging the 5th Nikken Annual European and World Convention in Dusseldorf, Germany for an audience of 5,000 delegates from 25 countries, with translation required for 17 languages. Nikken is an industry leader in network marketing and offer their clients a range of innovative products many of which are based on the latest in magnetic technology. Lighthouse have been involved with this client for over five years and 2001 represented the biggest challenge to date for the team.

The venue chosen was the Messe Congress Halls in Dusseldorf where six halls were booked to cover the main events, the Gala dinner and an exhibition centre. Hall 9 was the main convention site and covered 11,000sq.m. The set was 65m wide and contained two 20ft x 15ft screens. The principal feature of the conference was to reward delegates for sales throughout the

Running from 3-6 February 2002 at the Paris Expo Centre, Porte de Versailles, the 2002 SIEL event celebrates its 20th anniversary and looks set to continue its successful run. Last year the event received close to 24,000 visitors in attendance to meet some 280 exhibitors. Now uniting three major entertainment markets - SIEL Entertainment, SIEL Night & Show and SIEL Event, SIEL offers visitors access to a diverse and complementary range of products. Reed Expositions France, organisers of SIEL, can be contacted at: 70, rue Rivay - 92532 Levallois Perret, Cedex, France.

Lighting&Sound International, PLASA Media’s leading entertainment technology journal, is sponsoring the New Technology Gallery at PLASA 2001. This is the showcase of all products nominated for the prestigious PLASA Awards for Product Excellence. Situated on the Top Deck of the PLASA Show, near to the main bar area, the showcase offers visitors a chance to check out the features and capabilities of all of the major product innovations at PLASA 2001, in one place.

L&SI will be based on the Lower Deck (stand K19), where we will be offering free readerships to qualifying UK industry personnel, plus special offers on international subscriptions only available at PLASA 2001 - plus PLASA Media freebies to all new subscribers!

L&SI can be found on stand K19.

This year, Carlsbro Electronics will be exhibiting at the PLASA show for the first time. This famous British manufacturer started making quality sound equipment 40 years ago, from their factories near Mansfield, Notts. The company has a new 32-page catalogue and some innovative products on demo, including the revolutionary ‘NlightN’ sound panels, featuring ‘NXT’ technology. The Company’s new owner, Andrew Bishop, will be on the stand, together with R&D manager, Garry Brookes, and area sales manager, Mal Ward.

Forget three-phase power supplies, water-cooling, unreliable performance and costly maintenance, plug and play lasers are definitely the way ahead according to laser firm VIVID. By plugging into a standard 13amp socket crisp, pin-sharp graphics and animated images can be thrown from the lightweight laser with the bonus of high speed digital blanking. With each image as a separate entity the permutations for all manner of presentations is endless, says Mike Lister, managing director of Vivid.

Lister has teamed up with Clive Davies, the technical mind behind Laser Electronics, to form Vivid, which is based in brand new 12,000sq.ft high-tech headquarters in Wakefield. Vivid manufactures a rotor moulded, stylish lightweight case which can be colour-matched to any interior. Each unit weighs less than 15 kilos and can be daisy-chained like any intelligent lighting rig. Vivid claims it's the

Pani is introducing the BP 2.5 ECO - a new development on the PANI ‘T’ (Turbo) generation platform. Economy and effectiveness were the prime aims for the company in the achievement of unprecedented value-for-money in a projector in this category. The BP 2.5 ECO is specially designed for short and medium distances. As a high-quality member of the PANI projection system, it is fully compatible with the complete accessory range including all objectives as well as the new Compact Scroller CS 70.

Another inovation from Pani, the Economic Slide System (ESS), gives users the opportunity to produce their own slides. They only need a PC or Mac. The ESS is a one-stop solution consisting of a state-of-the-art inkjet photoprinter, printer software with template for the output medium, 50 PANI special foils and 15 aluminium slide frames.

Pani can be found on stand R30.

Bookings are now being taken for this year's Theatrical London tour (12-14 September), which follows on directly from the PLASA Show. The event will feature visits to the world-renowned Royal Albert Hall for a night at the Proms; the Apollo Theatre to see the upgraded Starlight Express; Tussaud's Group Studios for an exclusive technical tour, and the Donmar Warehouse for a 'Divas at the Donmar' performance. The cost is just £250 per person for the whole programme! For full details and booking information, visit the website below.

At PLASA 2001, Clay Paky is presenting a series of new product lines, as well as expanding existing ones. This wide range includes the ‘Silent Version’ (SV) models, designed to guarantee maximum operating silence and the ‘Golden’ models, which ensure high performances at a low expense.

With Stage Profile 1200 SV, Stage Color 1200 SV and Stage Zoom 1200 SV, Clay Paky have developed three projectors that are over 50% quieter than normal. This is due to an innovative cooling system designed by Clay Paky’s R&D department. The Stage Profile 1200 SV combines the quality of a professional beam shaper with the versatility of a moving body projector. This innovative and creative tool - ideal for use in theatre, television and concert applications - allows beam-shaping evenly in quadrilaterals and triangles of any shape or size. The effect utilizes four beam-shaping

Visual Act is a system of remote-controlled wagons for creating movement on and off the stage. Movements are limited only by the imagination, giving both artists and technicians total freedom in design. Visual Act combines the elements of computer control, battery-operated servos, high-speed radio communication and laser-based navigation to obtain a high level of flexibility and dependability. All components are modular and easily installed in the wagon framework. They can therefore be reused in wagons of almost any shape and size.

See Visual Act at PLASA at stand R62.

Federal Signal, a leading supplier of public address and voice alarm (PA/VA) systems, will be hosting a special seminar at PLASA 2001 to highlight the significance of British Standards for PA/VA systems. The initiative is aimed at consultants, specifiers and installers from across the PA/VA and fire protection industry who need to know more about the issue of operating standards and why it is important to use systems with BS5839 compliance. The guest speaker will be industry consultant Doug Edworthy, formerly of Millbank Electronics and a leading expert in systems engineering, marketing and quality management. He has been running his own consultancy since 1994. Jason Hatswell, commercial sales manager at Federal Signal, said: "The event focuses on why British Standards are important to those responsible for product specification, design and installation, and illustrates how our equi

This year Turbosound will be hosting an air-conditioned demonstration room on the Top Deck of PLASA. At various intervals throughout the day, there will be demonstrations of products from the Floodlight and QLight series. There will also be a multimedia demonstration in Dolby 6.1 surround sound using the TCS-35s and TCS-108s. On the main stand, a range of new products including the TQ-115, the TCS-108P and the TFM-450 will be on display, amongst other products from their QLight, Floodlight and TCS series.

The TFM-450 is a floor monitor and is based around a custom designed neodymium 15" low frequency driver which uses a 4" voice coil for maximum efficiency, and a 2" exit neodymium high frequency driver on a 60° x 40° horn. The TQ-115 is a low frequency enclosure comprising a custom designed 15" x 3" voice coil loudspeaker. It is intended for use as a low freq

Martin Audio - a world leader in the manufacture of professional loudspeaker systems - will this year display examples of all their product ranges, including Wavefront, EM, Cinema, Architectural, Blackline and accompanying dedicated control electronics. The company will also be launching additional Blackline cabinets - the F8, F10 and S12 - as well as a new line of lower cost professional power amplifiers, the MA900, MA1400 and MA4200.

The F8 and F10 Blackline cabinets are multi-angled enclosures featuring a 1" (25mm) compression driver on a 90° x 50° user rotatable horn with a long-excursion 8" (200mm) low frequency driver and a powerful 10" (250mm) low frequency driver respectively. The S12 is an extremely powerful and compact sub-bass cabinet which when used in conjunction with either the F8 or F10 will extend the response of the complete system to below 50Hz. The M

Blackout Triple E Ltd has just completed what it believes to be the biggest draping job ever under taken in Europe. The brief was to construct 11 acoustic friendly session rooms, in addition to providing the rigging for lighting, sound and video throughout a hall measuring over half a kilometre in length by 100m across and 15m high. The project involved over 100 motors, 5000m of catenaries, over 1000m of truss and a staggering 1000 drapes, which alone weighed over 30 tonnes and required three 45ft trucks to transport them to the newly commissioned Montjuic 2 exhibition centre run by Fira de Barcelona in Spain.

Discussions began over 12 months ago about the feasibility of holding simultaneous presentations in such a big hall: the requirement was to create eleven 'rooms' - nine to hold 880 people, one to accommodate 1650 and another for 2050 people. The task was to create a cost-effectiv

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